Fourth Down and Out: An Andy Hayes Mystery

Andy Hayes Mysteries #1

by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

The job seems easy enough at first for private investigator Andy Hayes: save his client’s reputation by retrieving a laptop and erasing a troublesome video from its hard drive. But that’s before someone breaks into Andy’s apartment in Columbus; before someone else, armed with a shotgun, relieves him of the laptop; and before the FBI suddenly shows up on his doorstep asking questions.

Soon, there’s a growing list of people with a claim on the computer, all of them with secrets they don’t want uncovered. When one of those people ends up dead, Andy has his hands full convincing authorities he’s not responsible, while trying to figure out who is—and who’s got the laptop—before someone else dies. Soon the trail leads to the last place Andy wants to go: back to Ohio State University, where few have forgiven him for a mistake he made two decades earlier in his days as the Buckeyes’ star quarterback. That misjudgment sent him on a downward spiral that cost him a playing career, two marriages, several wrecked relationships, and above all his legacy in Ohio’s capital city, where the fortunes of the OSU team are never far from people’s minds.

As Andy tracks a laptop and a killer from the toniest of the city’s suburbs to its grittiest neighborhoods, he must confront a dark figure from his past and prove that this time he won’t drop the ball.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Book Club, Mystery Thriller

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2014

About the author

ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS is the Shamus Award-nominated author of the Andy Hayes private eye series, the standalone crime novel "The End of the Road," and editor of "Columbus Noir." His short fiction has appeared in "Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine," "Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine," Mystery Magazine," the anthologies "The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2021," "Mickey Finn 21st Century Noir: Vols I and III," "Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon," and other magazines and anthologies. Andrew's nonfiction book, "No Winners Here Tonight," is the definitive history of the death penalty in Ohio.

Reviews

[Jennifer Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fallen Hero On the Rise

When rabid Ohio State football fans hate you, living in Columbus won't be easy. Such is the experience of Andy Hayes, former Buckeye quarterback turned private investigator.

Andy deftly handles his first case, retrieving a laptop replete with blackmail videos, only to discover that there's more contraband hidden on the hard drive. Quite a few people want the laptop so bad they're willing to kill for it.

I enjoyed Andy's wry humor.

"It might help me figure out how one laptop could cause so much trouble. It's like the Archduke Ferdinand of portable computers."

I also had fun reading about all of the Columbus references, especially the food joints. (We are the home of Wendy's, after all.)

Andy navigates lying witnesses, shady characters, and even a severe beating with ease. I felt bad for him with his constant headaches. After playing a sport with a high concussion risk, he should've chosen a less violent career. But he's had a rough life since making a bad choice in college, and he doesn't have many options.

I'm rooting for him to achieve many first downs in the future.

[miteypen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m from Columbus, Ohio, where this series is set, so I was looking forward to seeing how the author incorporated the city into his story line. Turns out, he did very well. Almost too well. While it was fun to recognize places around Columbus, sometimes it seemed that he was just trying to cram in as many references as he could, and it detracted from the story, which was weak to begin with. The mystery was too confusing—it was mainly about a missing laptop, and I couldn’t keep track of who wanted it and why. And the characters just didn’t come alive for me. Plus it doesn’t help that I could care less about Ohio State football, or any football, for that matter, and he makes it seem like everyone in Columbus is a rabid Buckeye fan. I didn’t feel like it conveyed a full picture of What it’s like to live in Columbus.

I’ve actually met the author and really liked him. He was leading a workshop I attended about writing mystery novels. He had loads of good advice and really seemed like he knew what he was talking about. Too bad it didn’t come through in this novel.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Need a quick and entertaining read, then FOURTH DOWN AND OUT provides a good option. I’ve read Andrew Welsh-Huggins for ages in his role as an AP reporter in Columbus, Ohio with a focus on state politics. Only recently, during a visit to a Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio (thanks to my daughter, Ronni for taking me there) did I discover that Welsh-Huggins has a long-running mystery series. FOURTH DOWN AND OUT is the first entry in the adventures of woebegone private investigator Andy Hayes, known as “Woody” but not affectionately.

The case that starts this story is straightforward, as a couple of entitled teenagers try to extort an amoral adult. The adult brings Hayes into the case and the focus then becomes the laptop on which the incriminating evidence is kept. Like home repairs, one darn thing follows another and the initial case quickly becomes, not an after-thought but very much a lesser concern.

As the introduction of a new series, the backstory for Andy Hayes is revealed slowly throughout the book. It does involve Ohio State football, and it is a situation in which Hayes literally hits rock bottom. So, FOURTH DOWN AND OUT is in part a story of redemption, but an incomplete one.

The story is told primarily via straightforward, unadorned dialogue rather than exposition. As would be expected from a veteran journalist, the story unravels neatly and without a lot of extraneous narrative. There is considerable specificity as Hayes journeys through various parts of Columbus and its suburbs. I liked that but then I’m at least a little familiar with the area. Looking forward to tackling the second book in the series soon.

Must be a special
version of stubborn to stay
where you are reviled.

[Bernadette Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked all the Columbus background. Liked Andy.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars! I enjoyed this first of 10 mystery series written by a Columbus Ohio native! It’s full of fun local references and I’m glad to find a new series that I enjoyed completely! I’ve ordered the second one from the library!

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more of a 3 1/2 but I rounded up. This book actually got better as it went along. At first there seemed to be too much going on at once, which made it drag more than added to the excitement. I really liked that I was familiar with the setting.

[Summer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was one of the stupidest books I've ever read. I'm annoyed with myself for having picked it up. There was not a single point, in this meandering, ridiculous story that I enjoyed. The main plot was barely held together with the thinnest of pretenses. There was a secondary case that the protagonist was working on that went literally NO WHERE. It was completely pointless.

I don't even want to describe the main plot because it was just so convoluted and stupid.

The main thing about the protagonist is that he is hated for throwing some OSU football games 20 years ago. First of all, why even live in Columbus? That's silly. Secondly, the thing about everyone recognizing him? Preposterous. Thirdly, the scene where he actually goes into the Shoe, where every throws things at him was SO POINTLESS. To tell a bad guy to stop being bad? Are you kidding me? He could have texted him. Or he could have, like, just done nothing because the whole exercise was ridiculous.

The thing he was so hated for made no sense! He threw the games because he needed money to pay for an abortion. Was $900 an unattainable sum 20 years ago? Did Planned Parenthood not exist? And this chick was threatening to go to the university... and what??? Tell them that he knocked her up??? Was that a friggin' CRIME 20 years ago???

I cannot say enough bad things about this book. The level of minute detail was staggeringly boring. The detective goes to the library to research something and he is in such a rush, he forgets to pay at the upstairs parking pay station and has to come back in the building to pay for parking. WHO CARES? He starts to drink one beer but decides on another. SO WHAT? For the life of me, I cannot imagine what the author thought he was contributing to story by bogging it down with minutiae.

Perhaps that he knew his plot was stupid and paperthin and distracted himself from it's lameness by writing little details about his life. It was like reading a boring person's diary.

[Ellen Behrens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd never heard of the Andy Hayes Mysteries until I read a short story by Andrew Welsh-Huggins in a mystery magazine. The story was set in Columbus, Ohio, and -- as a native Ohioan -- I set out to find out what else the author had published.

"Fourth Down and Out" is the first in the series, and though it took me a little while to warm to the story, I was soon flipping the pages (okay, swiping the screen on my e-reader) as fast as I could to see what would happen next.

Andy's a private investigator, hired by folks in trouble or those hoping to catch others in trouble. He takes an extortion case involving some high schoolers and a laptop, but it doesn't take long before it's clear someone is after that laptop. We might know something important is going on, be frustrated that Andy seems a little dense to that, but eventually he figures out even more than we readers could have guessed. Nothing is as it seems, which is how we want the world of mysteries to work.

I loved being dropped back into Columbus -- even if it was through the pages of a novel -- after many years of being physically away from it. Ah, High Street! I remember that. And Broad Street. And, of course, the Buckeyes college football team.

If you love a hero who's flawed in a way that makes him a local underdog (he's a pariah in ways I'll let the book explain) so no one wants to work with him. This makes his job even harder, and makes his demeanor less than pleasant. But who could blame him?

It's enough for terrific inner conflict and tension, and while this particular story is resolved, there's plenty more to explore with Andy Hayes that makes the next entry in the series a "must read" on my list.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Columbus' newest PI, Andy Hayes, has an investigators' determination, a clever wit and a penchant for quintessential local eating establishments. Sounds like my friend and colleague, author Andrew Welsh-Huggins, who's brought Ohio's unsung capital city into the limelight with this budding mystery series. Andy is also a dishonored Buckeye quarterback in a football-crazy town, which will make him a ripe character study as the series continues. A fun spin around town for the reader with a gripping climax and a satisfying ending.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This entertaining read is a private investigator novel that takes place in Columbus, Ohio with a scene at the Upper Arlington library. It was paced well, the story interesting and I really enjoyed all of the references to places that I have been in my home city.

A good first novel from a new author, I only gave it 3 stars because it doesn't have the same kind of substance that usually pushes ratings up for me.

Fans of Sue Grafton and Lawrence Block will probably enjoy this new series.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a result of repeatedly hearing the author Andrew Welsh-Huggins' name at what were for weeks daily press briefings for the state of Ohio during the pandemic (and yes, I miss our health director Dr. Amy Action still). Welsh-Huggins is a legal affairs reporter and this is the first of so-far six books in his mystery series about a former Ohio State football player with a messy past turned private investigator. One simple thing by way of a "fix-it" and then it is just one thing after another after another . . . . Each chapter takes the reader into a different spot of Columbus with only two places/things that didn't ring true (Barnes & Noble at Easton's surface parking lot is not next to Panera [unless years ago Northstar wasn't in that spot] and Columbus folks I know go to the Hocking Hills not Hocking County). Yes, tiny things . . . but that's why I love reading about places I know in fiction. The hero is likable and learning from his earlier mistakes, and the surrounding characters and backstory have real potential for the series. And though the back cover proclaims this is noir--well, one bad thing does lead to a worse thing and another bad thing--but justice comes in the end (maybe that's the Middle-America version of noir). And for that I will read on in this series.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andy Hayes- known to some as Andy Woody Hayes- carries a lot of baggage in trying to carry out his duties as private investigator in home- town Columbus, Ohio, state capitol, but most importantly home to the winningest Ohio State Buckeyes for whom he played quarterback twenty years prior. He made the decision to intentionally let a number of fans down on the field in a pivotal game for which he served time-more time than was due him because he did not out another (Burke) and paid consequences for both. His sacrifice did earn him employment with Burke's prestigious law firm, so it was not totally without gain. Even though he served his time and puts his deed behind him, this is not the case to diehard fans of which there are many- some of which express their anger with their fists and bats.

The storyline revolves around a taken laptop which contains a sexually incriminating video that Andy 's client, Doug Freeley. As it turns out, that very same laptop was made the depository of other information for two other parties that neither of which want exposed as well for it would carry repercussions. A high stakes affair for multiple parties.

[Helen Cho · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author managed to mention every single section and suburb of Columbus, Ohio: German Village, Worthington, Upper Arlington, New Albany, Westerville, Reynoldburg, Grove City, The Hilltop, and several I'm sure I'm forgetting. I think he may have missed some of the townships but that may have been overdoing things. At first it was funny to read about all the streets and restaurants and stores that I recognized but felt after a while that it was too much. But I don't know, perhaps all books set in a particular city have that same specificity and I don't notice because I don't know that city?

An engaging protagonist in Andy "Woody" Hayes and interesting plotlines in which the author touches on the social issues of the day--drugs, cheating on exams and sports, cheating on spouses, poverty, wealth inequity. Plus the obsessive compulsion that Ohio State football is for Columbus, Ohio. Unlike anything else in the country.

Enjoyable.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fourth Down and Out by Andrew Welsh - Huggins grabs the reader from the first page and doesn’t let go until the ball has crossed the goal line. The P.I. story features Andy Hayes, a somewhat infamous and reviled private eye in Columbus, Ohio, and the reader doesn’t know why. However, it has something to do with football, a massive deal in Ohio. Fourth Down and Out involves a missing laptop and 4 or 5 people looking for it for various reasons ranging from marital infidelity to financial shenanigans. The book moves quickly as the writer paints a vivid picture of Columbus and its distinctive characters. Welsh-Huggins has written many Andy Hayes mysteries, and I recommend that readers start with Fourth Down and Out and continue until the end of his back list.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in a series about a private investigator that lives in Columbus, Ohio. Andy is hired by a client to remove a compromising video from a computer. After Andy's home is searched and he is attacked, he quickly realizes that the case is much more complex. As Andy meets many people and travels throughout Franklin County, he is often recognized as a football player from Ohio State who made a bad choice two decades ago. It is such fun to read a book with all the landmarks so familiar to those who live here. Can't wait to read more in the series.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because it's set in and around Columbus, OH. Besides my enjoying all the shout-outs to places I know and the author's solid and accurate rendering of Buckeye football fever, the story has nicely interwoven plot threads. The protagonist, private investigator Andy "Woody" Hayes, is hired to delete a digitally captured incriminating encounter. From his first meeting with his desperate client, Hayes is thrust into all kinds of danger, mayhem, and farce. His first person narrative moves quickly and kept me intrigued.

[Martha Crone · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, rounded down. Pros: Andy is a great character, loved the Cbus references. Loved the last 1/3, where things got more focused and exciting. Cons: too many characters and coincidences. Also I can't figure out how Andy stays afloat when he's so confrontational to his clients. And a relationship didn't make sense. I know the series has many iterations so I'm planning to buy a few more and see where Andy goes.

[Lindalee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a somewhat complicated private investigator mystery involving a multitude of people... I should have made a list of their names as they occurred. It was a lot of fun for me because I live in Columbus, Ohio, and the story is set there. The author packed the book with great local references.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that my favorite part of this book was that it takes place in Columbus, OH. I lived there for 26 years and taught at The Ohio State University. I could appreciate all the references to the Buckeye's fans. I also found Andy Hayes likeable and flawed character. The plot had many twists and turns which kept my interest and made me think about where it would go next.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review here:

https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...

I enjoyed it, even if some of the biggest fiction in here was finding parking in German Village less than a mile away from where you were trying to go. I doubt non residents of Ohio would find much of interest here, although you never know.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second book by this author in a few days, and they both have good plots but way too many characters. The author also does not make the different characters easy for a reader to follow. Either way, it is 3.5 to 4 for me.

[Melissa Wenzinger]

Book was very enjoyable. Great Beginning to a mystery series. Andy is a likeable character ad you feel like you are a friend to him. Ready to read the second. I was drawn in from the begining not about the mystery part but the character himself. S

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I lived near Columbus, Ohio for 40 years, most of the settings are familiar.

[Janis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the plot of this book. A bit too much Columbus for me, but doesn’t detract from the story at all. I moved to Columbus 25 years ago. I guarantee the author isn’t exaggerating the Buckeye Football mania in this city. It goes on 365 days a year. I like living here & have no intention of moving, but it’s certainly a mismatch for a woman who doesn’t care about football & didn’t attend Ohio State.

I’m definitely going to read book 2.

[Candy Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great start to a series based in Columbus, Ohio. Author, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, leads us on an intriguing tour of Columbus with Private Eye and Fallen Football Hero, Andy Hayes.

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally read book #1 in the Andy Hayes Mysteries and wow what a great story. I specifically liked the Associated Press and all the Columbus references. Really a big fan of this series.

[Linda Boling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the many, many references to Columbus in this book.

[Debbie Sauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a quick and fun read. Love all the references to Columbus, Ohio.

[Katie Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

My brother recommended this book. He met the author, who is from Columbus, Ohio and the book is set in Columbus. It was a good mystery book!

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid debut. A bit heavy-handed with product and location marketing, but a good read anyway.